We've been claimed!

Doing a little housekeeping today and because of the demise of google reader, we've claimed our sew-ichigo on bloglovin'.   You can find the link over there on the right sidebar.  It looks like this!

And if you haven't used bloglovin' much, you're in for a sweet surprise!  It's super easy to use, clean, and I love reading the blogs I follow with it for those reasons!

Happy Monday!

Parisienne Cafe Set

Yay!  Penny and I are over the moon to present our newest pattern set, Parisienne Cafe.  It's in the Sew-Ichigo shop now and being added to our Craftsy shop too.

For those of you who have bought our patterns before you will notice a change.  The patterns are present as a single unit for you to cut up into sections.  The cutting lines are marked with a thick blue line and a scissors icon.  This gives you additional flexibility if you want to size the block up and down and it makes the pattern more accurate.  It also means that there will be no paper in the seams which I found a lot easier when sewing the blocks together.  The patterns are for foundation piecing but can also be traced or printed on to freezer paper if you prefer to piece that wasy.

Are you ready for some close ups?

Starting with 'Espresso Cups'  The easiest pattern in the set.  Make one, make 4, whatever you like!  It's such a fast pattern you can easily make multiples and use different prints and colours.

Followed by 'Coffee Grinder', this is an advanced beginner- lots of straight seams but some small pieces.  The 'Cafe' label was made stamping a piece of fabric before adding it to the block.  It is the first piece in that section which makes it easier to place precisely- I used a little dab Sewline fabric glue stick to get it exactly where I wanted it.  We have a stamping tutorial here.

The 'Tea pot' pattern is another advanced beginner pattern and such an elegant shape!  The main fabric is again the first piece of fabric you will add so you can centre motifs and fussy cut patterns to make the most of the slender shape.

And finally, the 'French Press/Cafetiere'.  This is an intermediate pattern, mainly because of the size of the pieces.  The hardest bit is the feet- but then I always find diagonals need a bit of extra attention!  The block is sized at 5 1/4" x 7 3/4" and then strips are added at the sides and top for background and at the base for the 'table' it is sitting on.  This makes it easy to make the sizing match common quilt block sizing- 10" square, 12 1/2" square and so on.

We hope you enjoy our new designs, available as a pack in our shop right now!  Look out on our blogs for a chance to win a pattern set too!

Strawberry Fields

It is not often that I think of making a whole quilt of paper pieced blocks, it takes a lot of dedication.  That didn't put Penny off, using the Sew-Ichigo Strawberry block along with a little help from nineteen other quilters...

Read all about it here...

Noel Mini Quilt/Mat Tutorial

Here is a super quick tutorial for those of you who have bought 'Sew Very Christmas' pattern set and wanted to make the mini quilt with the 'Noel' and 'Candy Tree' patterns.
1. Make 1 set of Noel letters and 4 candy trees following the pattern instructions.  Place a tree under each letter and join-the width of the letters and the trees are the same.  Join each pair of letters/trees together to make the centre of the mini.
2. Add sashing.  I added background solid sashing in grey starting at the sides- 2 strips each measuring 2" x 5 1/2", and then 2 strips across the top and bottom each measuring 2" x 11 1/2".

3. Add a further sashing border in a colour print.  Add the side strips first, 2" x 8 1/2" and then the top and bottom strips each measuring 2' x 14 1/2".

4. Make a quilt sandwich with batting and background fabric cut and inch larger than your mini quitl top.  Spray baste/ pin or sew baste layers together.  Quilt as desired.

5. Add a single layer binding- see my tutorial here for binding and here for mitred corners.

Your mini is complete!  We would love to see your Sew-Ichigo project makes, you can add them to our Flickr group.

Sew Very Christmas Drawstring Bags

 Jeni's lined drawstring pattern was ideal for our 'Sew Very Christmas' blocks.  Jeni gives dimensions to make 8 different bag sizes.  All we had to do was make the blocks the same size as the exterior main pieces and follow Jeni's instructions!  The "tiny" gift bag was perfect for two candy trees side by side on the front and back.  I used Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks voiles for the jewel like colours and motifs, they reminded me of decorated trees, and Essex linen in 'Bleached White'.

To make the exterior main pieces I made 4 candy tree blocks, finished size 2 "x 3" and added rectangles as below.  Note the directions of the trees. I used a single panel to make the lower sections of the exterior main pieces and put a horizontal fold along the centre as there will be no seam at the bottom to align the side gussets. 

For the 'Noel' bag, I increased the 'Noel' blocks by 150% on the print option to make each letter measure 3" x 3"finished size and joined them together in a square arrangement.

I used the "project bag" pattern and added sashing strips to the 'Noel' block to make the main exterior front (see diagram) and used a plain linen for the back-Robert Kaufman's Essex Linen in 'Steel' and assorted solids form my stash.  The floral accent fabric is a Denyse Schmidt DS print.

For the Christmas dress bag...

I made Jeni's "everything bag".  The only thing I changed was I didn't add the gusset as suggested in the pattern.  I used some spoonflower fabric for the dress and DS quilts for the background as well as some of Tasha's Simple Life for the accent fabric in the drawstring area.  Here's a diagram for how I pieced the front exterior of the bag to get it to the correct dimensions.

And then, my favorite of the bags I made, the 'Retro bulb' bag using the "CD bag" pattern.

I used solids for the bulb and the background is all gingham from Tasha's line "simple life".  The top fabric is shasta daisy by Suzuko Koseki.  

And here's diagram for piecing the front of the bag using the retro bulb pattern. 

We hope you enjoy using our 'Sew Very Christmas pattern' for your gift making.  We would love to see your projects, you can add your pictures to the Sew-Ichigo Flickr group.

'Sew Very Christmas' : Our new pattern set

We are happy to present our new pattern set, 'Sew Very Christmas', ready for the season of gift making and giving.

We have aimed to keep these patterns as simple as possible with minimal sections to join and no curves or Y seams.  Ideal for tags, bags and pouches and more so you can wrap your presents with style.  Our pattern format  has been revamped for a cleaner, leaner format with a smaller file size and less to print and download!    Penny and I have made a series of projects for you to see here. Many use Jeni's Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern which is excellent for creating bags of many sizes and we will be sharing our tips on adapting the blocks for the pattern.  I also made a mat (tutorial to follow) to showcase the first two patterns 'Candy Tree' and 'Noel'.  The blocks are the same width (2") and work beautifully together.  I don't use solids often and I think I need to review that as they glow in this mat!

You can easily enlarge all the blocks in the pattern set and we include instructions for this.  I enlarged the 'Noel' pattern by 150% to make 3" blocks in this project sized bag from Jeni's pattern.  

Penny designed the most adorable 'Christmas Dress' block and it looks perfect with the plaid in this drawstring bag. 

She captured our favourite 1950s vintage vibe in the 'Retro Bulb' block.  She used the CD bag from Jeni's pattern with this block to make a gift bag. 

A tutorial on making the mat is coming later today and we will do a further post on using Jeni's bag pattern with the blocks.  In the meantime, the shop is open!  You can buy the pattern here or at our Craftsy store. Happy shopping and happy sewing!

Freebie for ya...

Sew-Ichigo

Presents 

totally free $0 £0 and for your delectation

General Paper Piecing Guidelines and Recommendations

Penny and I have been busy behind the scenes, a bit of this and bit of that, you know how it is.  We have a new Christmas/Holiday season pattern set about 10 days away from release and we have been tweaking and streamlining our format to bring you a more concise, easy to read pattern experience- less to download and print whilst still retaining all the vital 'how to' info.  We have put our piecing guidelines into a free download rather than including them in every pattern we produce and they are now available to everyone - just click here or here, scroll to the bottom!